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August 2012 Volume 137 Number 1080 Yorkshire Union Yorkshire Union The Naturalist Vol. 137 No. 1080 August 2012 Contents Editorial p81 The Hazel Dormouse release project at Freeholders’ Wood in the Yorkshire Dales National Park I.White and I.R.Court p82 When did the Weasel first appear in the Yorkshire fauna? C. A. Howes p89 Another early challenge to the 'orthodox' interpretation of industrial melanism in moths, posed by some forgotten observations of Ben Morley in 1911* Geoffrey Fryer p93 A four year study of airborne pollen of Pinaceae in South-east Scotland, 2008 - 2011 Eric Caulton, Gina Angus and Anna Innman p101 Queen's Birthday Honours Award p106 What is a naturalist? Dr John R. Mather p107 Nesting Kittiwakes on Scarborough Castle Headland and South Bay Robin N. Hopper p113 Importance of wetland management and restoration for farmland bird biodiversity: case study of Cayton and Flixton Carrs Wetland Project* Agne Gvozdevaite p115 The Anglers' Monitoring Initiative and beyond! David Croft p120 Farmland bird conservation schemes of the Scarborough Carrs Tim Burkinshaw p124 The wasps, ants and bees (aculeate Hymenoptera) of the ‘Green Spaces’ of Scarborough Town Michael E. Archer p128 Scarborough Castle – an urban location for a meadow John Newbould p132 The land, freshwater and marine molluscs of Scarborough Adrian Norris p133 Biographical notes on the Hull taxidermist-dealer Robert Dunn, his son Joseph and other possible family members: newspaper gleanings R.B. Williams p140 Scarborough Museum Trust Karen Snowden p144 Obituary Dr Robert Townend Pemberton p146 YNU Bryological Section: Report for 2009-2011 T.L. Blockeel and C. Wall p148 Yorkshire Museum Gardens BioBlitz report Sarah West p158 Book reviews: p147, 156, 157 Letters to the Editors: p99 YNU Notices: p92, 100, 159, 160 An asterisk* indicates a peer-reviewed paper Front cover: Juvenile Kittiwake (see p113) Photo: C. West Back cover: Juvenile Dormouse in tree at Freeholders' Wood, May 2011 (see p82) Photo: R. Gaynor Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union c/o NEYEDC, St William College, 5 College Street, York YO1 7JF Tel: 01904 641631 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ynu.org.uk Registered Charity No. 224018 The Naturalist This publication is issued free to individual members of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union and to Affiliated Societies. The Editorial Board of The Naturalist is currently: J. Bowers, W. Ely, A. Henderson, A. Millard, P. Simmons, S. West Notice to contributors Contributors should indicate whether they wish their manuscripts to be subjected to anonymous peer review. All other manuscripts will be reviewed by the Editorial Board who at their discretion may send them to third parties for comment and advice. Original articles should be submitted electronically as an MS Word document to Dr A. Millard at [email protected]. Please see The Naturalist Guide to Consistency on p77 of The Naturalist 1079 and please avoid the following: using tabs to tabulate information (please use MS Word table format or separate the column entries in a single row with commas and enter a paragraph mark at the end of the row). inserting any figures, graphs or plates into the text; indicate their proposed locations in the text and send as separate files. Good quality, high resolution images are very welcome and should be sent as .jpg files, with a separate MS Word file containing the caption and name of the person to whom the image should be attributed. If electronic submission is not possible, contributions should be sent to Dr. A. Millard, Woodland Villas, 86 Bachelor Lane, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5NF (Tel. 0113 258 2482) Contributors should ensure the accuracy of reference citations. The Editorial Board and Council accept no responsibility for opinions expressed by contributors. Copy Dates: April issue - 14 February; August issue - 14 June; December issue - 14 October © Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union – 2012 Single copies may be made of single articles in this journal provided that due acknowledgement is made and the copies are for non-profit making educational or private use. Copying of more than one article or multiple copying of a single article is forbidden unless special permission has been obtained from the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. Permission is granted for the use of brief quotations in published work provided that acknowledgement of the source is clearly stated but the use of substantial sections of text and any illustrative matter requires the express permission of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. ISSN 0028-0771 August 2012 Volume 137 Number 1080 Editorial A year ago we presented an issue of The Naturalist containing several articles about natural history around Leeds. With this issue we have articles relating to the Scarborough district. The editors are grateful to the members of the Scarborough Field Naturalists' Society and the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union and others for contributing these articles. We hope to produce an issue next year which contains a group of articles relating to another part of Yorkshire. If you are willing to co-ordinate such a series of articles then please get in touch with us. While the two issues so far have dealt with a city and a town, it is not necessary to cover such large areas every time. The wildlife of a village, a parish, a river valley or even an individual site could form the subject of such an issue. As with the Leeds and Scarborough ones, we welcome information on history, management and conservation issues as well as articles on particular groups or even individual species of animals and plants. You will see from this issue that articles can range from a single page to several pages. We are keen to encourage contributions from naturalists who may never have written articles for publication before and short notes on their experiences would be a gentle first step in sharing their knowledge with the rest of us. The 'Notice to Contributors' on the inside back cover applies to such articles. The themed issues benefit enormously from good photographs as, indeed, does every issue of The Naturalist. We cannot pay for using your photographs but the photographer is credited in each one. We are very grateful when members offer us the use of their work so please contact us if you have photographs which you would be willing to see in future issues. The Naturalist 137 (2012) 81 The Hazel Dormouse release project at Freeholders’ Wood in the Yorkshire Dales National Park I. White People's Trust for Endangered Species, 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London, SW8 4BG email: [email protected] I.R. Court Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Colvend, Hebden Road, Grassington, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 5LB. email: [email protected] Abstract The Hazel Dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius has become extinct in Yorkshire over the past 100 years. There have been two previous attempts to establish a breeding population in the county which may have been successful. A third re-introduction was undertaken in Freeholders' Wood in 2008; this required a slight change in the management of the wood, an input from a variety of organisations and the help of a number of volunteers. To date the project appears to be successful with good dormouse numbers recorded and evidence that the species has at least dispersed throughout the woodland. Introduction In 1885 Rope identified a number of locations in Yorkshire at which the Hazel Dormouse had been recorded. Howes (1985) noted some more recent records from the 1950s and 1960s; and although there were a couple of records from 1979 and 1980, these were not substantiated (Oxford 1999). The next national survey on this species was not undertaken until 1993 when the first Great Nut Hunt provided very good evidence that dormice had become extinct in the county of Yorkshire during the preceding hundred years. The Hazel Dormouse was once widespread in woods throughout Britain but the Great Nut Hunt showed that, apart from populations in Cumbria and Northumberland, the Dormouse had been lost from Yorkshire and at least six other northern and midland English Counties. Further research work on the species showed that not only had the range reduced but also the population had diminished significantly over the past 100 years (Bright & Morris 1995, Sanderson 2001). The loss was chiefly thought to be due to the isolation of woods, changes in woodland management and both the loss and inappropriate management of hedgerows. The species is very sensitive to environmental factors and so the woodlands and scrub they inhabit needs to be well managed at both the local and landscape level. Due to the apparent decline of the Hazel Dormouse, the species was granted protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and this has been enhanced by the Conservation of Habitat and Species Regulations 2010. A national Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for dormice was instigated in 1995 to help conserve the species, aiming to “maintain, enhance and re-establish dormouse populations within their historic range”. To achieve this, the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP) was set up to examine the national population trend of the Hazel Dormouse by the regular monitoring of a large number of sites where dormice are known to exist. This has shown that the dramatic population decline in the past 50 years finally appears to be slowing and over the past 20 years there has been an effort to return the Dormouse to some of the counties from which it has been lost or where its numbers are low. The species has been re-introduced to 17 sites in 11 counties since the first re-introduction took place in Cambridgeshire in 1993. Unfortunately the releases at three of these sites do not appear to have been successful, probably due to inappropriate or 82 The Naturalist 137 (2012) insufficient woodland management.